Geothermal Engineering

We had over 150 people attending the exhibition and by the end of the second day we’d noticed some recurring questions: here are some answers that should help clear things up.   

• What happened to the Rosemanowes project?
  Rosemanowes was a research project to understand rock mechanics and the movement of water through rocks at depths greater than 2 km. The research successfully demonstrated that water could be injected through one well into rocks at these depths and abstracted from another well. This project was never intended to result in a power plant. The project ran from 1976 to 1991 at which point this type of research became funded by the EC and a new project was started in France.  This is now producing power. We won’t be using the Rosemanowes site for our own project as we have identified what we think is a more suitable geology near the United Downs industrial estate.      

• Free heat for the local community? What’s the catch?
  As far as we’re concerned, the thermal energy we generate from the geothermal power plant is a completely free resource for the local area. We will produce an annual 55 MW of heat and we are in discussions with Cornwall Council on how best to use this resource. Some suggested uses include supplying the heat to local businesses and commercial greenhouses, but we’re always open to more ideas.

• Why not send the free heat directly to local residents’ homes?
  Because the quantity of heat is so large, our original plan was to offer the heat for municipal and commercial use rather than domestic use. However, we’ve had so many requests asking us to consider it for domestic use that we are going to try and connect Carharrack and St Day to a district heating main. We have four years to make this work and will be speaking further to both the Parish Council and the County Council regarding how this can be achieved.

If you have a question that hasn’t been answered in this post, please post it below or check our FAQ page.

Finally, if you’d like to see a few pictures from last week’s exhibition, please take a look at our Twitter account.